In addition to the new tool Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire Mk I that I had picked up from Hannant’s when they first came out, I picked up another one from the "not so local anymore" hobby shop about a week ago. Now I have two of these Tamiya gems, and I can’t stand it anymore. Something has to be done.
It didn’t help me that my friend Jaime Carreon @jetmex
gave me this 1/48 Special Hobby Seafire Mk III when he stopped by our house the last time he visited Florida.
So I will have to see if these new 1/48 scale Tamiya Spitfires build up as nicely as the new tool 1/48 scale Tamiya Ki-61 Hien did that I finished about 2 years ago. That was the most perfectly fitting model I have ever had the privilege of building... ever.
If this new tool Tamiya Spitfire is as good as their new tool 1/48 scale Ki-61 Hien kit was, I seriously doubt that Eduard has "Taken Tamiya's lunch money and shoved them in a locker" as has been reported by one. I can tell you from looking at what is inside the box, this kit is a real gem. It has painting masks for the canopy, and PE parts are included. The decals give you three choices for various early Spitfires, and both the colors and the registration looks to be good on the decals. Tamiya also provides a wonderful painting guide that is printed in color. This painting guide is worthy of framing afterwards, it's that good !
To be perfectly fair to Eduard, I have not built one (or seen one in person for that matter) of their new Spitfires. I have read where they are a bit "fiddly" to build, but the trade off is a very, very accurate Spitfire. I have heard some grumblings about the manual retraction hydraulic "wobble pump" the only option, and the newer style landing gear retraction hydraulic control levers not being present in the cockpit (like that which was an option in the fairly new tool 1/48 release by Airfix, which allowed you to build one of 3 various early Mk I Spitfires). The only other negative thing I have heard reported about the Eduard offering, was the size of the cowling Zeus fasteners. These were reported to be too big with the Eduard kit. Other than that, these new Eduard kits also seem to be very nice. I'm not trying to slam anyone, only reporting the facts as usual.
I'm sure that each kit will have it's own shortcomings. But I personally like the ease of construction and perfect fitting parts that most often accompany the majority of kits that were made by Tamiya (even the ancient ones).
I'm almost tempted to do a kit review of the new Tamiya Spitfire so you can see what I mean about this kit being a real gem.
Enough talk, lets get busy building something. After building the rest of these Spitfires, I will most likely tear into the Tamiya 1/48 new tool Bf-109G-6. I have several 1/48 scale Dragon / DML Ju-88's (and a matching Ju-188 Racher) underway, and want to build up a Mistel... so you just never know what will happen here next.
Things are always subject to change at the Iron Werks.
Please follow along with me, as I crack open these new Tamiya Spitfires and start gluing them together.
My regret is that I didn't get these finished as part of our 100 Years of the RAF group build that Paul Barber so graciously hosted. Thanks again Paul !
As always, comments are encouraged.
